Night at the Rapallo

We were discussing the Genoa Convention last week: a meeting of European and Japanese leaders (plus those of various British commonwealths) in April of 1922 with the goal of reintegrating Germany and Russia into their number.

"Weltfrühling" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, April 30, 1922

Compared to the very successful recent naval conference in Washington D.C., things in Genoa were not going so well. France demanded continued heavy reparations from Germany which Germany protested it could not possibly afford. 

"None So Blind" by Winsor McCay for Star Company, by April 12, 1922

As for Soviet Russia, other European leaders were eager to resume commercial activity, and Russia, having finally vanquished the country's royalists, was eager to get Japan out of Siberia. But the allies' made normalization of relations conditional upon Russia paying back the tsarist national debt, compensating other nations for property confiscated by the Soviets, and abandoning its communist form of government.

"The Russian Reply to Allies' Demands" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., by April 26, 1922

While they felt that the debt issue could be negotiated, abandoning Marxism was unacceptable to the Russian delegation led by Soviet Foreign Minister Georgy Chicherin. The allies believed, however, that they held the upper hand against both Russia and Germany.

"Deutschland und Russland" by Ernst Schilling in Simplicissimus, Munich, May 10, 1922

What the allies hadn't counted on was Germany and Russia signing a mutual agreement in nearby Rapallo, renouncing all territorial, financial, and legal claims against each other. The two countries resumed normal diplomatic and consular relations. Germany found a way to play East against West, and Russia found itself a friend beyond its borders.

"The Russo-German Cherubs" by Clifford Berryman in Washington (DC) Evening Star, April 18, 1922

I usually find Clifford Berryman's cartoons somewhat pedestrian, if generally useful for following events at our nation's capital; but I love this parody of the Two Cherubs in Raphael's Sistine Madonna.

"The Same Old Game" by John Knott in Dallas Morning News, April 20, 1922

John Knott reflects the commonly held belief among Americans that European governments couldn't be trusted to deal fairly. That the U.S. intercepted on cables sent home and received by other countries' negotiators at the Washington D.C. Naval Conference proves that underhanded dealing was not limited to those wily Europeans.

"The Rival Attraction" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, April 19, 1922

And what Rapallo proved was that perhaps the British and French were just too clever for their own good.

"The Burning Question" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, April 19

A cartoonist's aside here: Gustavo Bronstrup's cartoons in the San Francisco Chronicle always had to accommodate the top of the paper's "The Morning's Morning" column, a collection of quick opinions and brief observances. I would be so annoyed if I had to allow for a print column to cover up the lower right corner of my cartoon day after every fricking day.

"Rockin' the Boat" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., by April 25, 1922

At any rate, the Genoa Conference, thanks to the Rapallo Pact, has gone down in history as a colossal diplomatic failure.

"Mon Dieu! The Cook's Gone Off with the Butler" by Art Young in The Nation, May, 1922